"This is not class warfare -- it's math," Mr. Obama said from the White House Rose Garden. ".....If we're not willing to ask those who've done extraordinarily well to help America close the deficit... [we] put the entire burden on the middle class and the poor."

Naturally, Republicans didn't waste time attacking the president's intentions. On Sunday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan attacked Obama as being "in a political class warfare mode and campaign mode. And that's not good for our economy."

Why isn't it? Calling attention to the inequities in our nation's finances seems like the right approach to take when your political opponents screech "socialism!" every time you seek to protect Americans, whether through health care reform or protection against job discrimination. Too often Republicans in Congress (and, when no one's paying attention, Democrats too), serve as courtiers to the rich, which explains how the wealthiest Americans have successfully shifted the tax burden from them onto everybody else over the last 30 years.

But with the recovery stalling -- (where are those job-creating corporations to which the Republicans promise fealty?) and even Democrats skittish about borrowing more money for a questionable "jobs creation program," taxing the wealthiest Americans is the fairest action to take.

According to BusinessInsider, "the gap between the top 1% and everyone else hasn't been this bad since the Roaring Twenties." Mother Jones compiled 11 graphics detailing the wealth inequalities in America -- and you can start with this one: the median net worth of American families is $120,000 while the median net work of Congress members is $912,000. Perhaps our elected members can't really feel our pain.

Here's the starkest number: between 2007 and 2009, Wall Street profits rose 720 percent at the same time the unemployment rate grew 102 percent and Americans' equity in their homes dipped 35 percent.

While the majority of Americans want economic efficiency -- this explains the Tea Party -- the bulk are also tired of carrying a disproportionate share of the country's budget on their backs.

Mr. President, if there was ever a time to risk the sweat-inducting discomfort of operating out of your naturally conciliatory confort zone, now is it.